What is the standard operating procedure for jumping with an object in your hands in freefall?

In a nutshell, I had a death in the family recently and a commemorative t-shirt was made with a sweet logo on the back. I wanted to jump with it in hand, belly fly, and have a shot taken of me in freefall with the shirt. (e.g. like this http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pg_TpKrqEkM/0.jpg)

Do you just let it go? Is separation for opening an issue? Let go 1000 ft before opening? Any hope of retrieval?

~Gracias

PS - the quote on the shirt is curiously relevant! J.M. Barrie: "The reason birds can fly and we can't is ... is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."

i do a lot of solo jumps, my dz has a 206, so its usually 2 tandems + 1 fun jumper(me)

while I don't mind that for now, because i always have something to practice, i sometimes think itll be cool to jump with something like a tennis ball, just so that I have something to compare relative to me, so I know if I am side-swaying or going forward and back.

Sky balls are weighted balls that need to be jumped with a lot of planning and experience since a dropped ball has the potential of damaging or injuring anything near it when it hits the ground. It also takes experience to dial in the speed of the ball to keep it from going too fast or slow for someone to fall with it.

As for the shirt you will need to think about things like how to keep it from inflating like a parachute in freefall, how you can hold it and things like that. Banners have a tendency to rip unless they are heavily reenforced. What you might want to think about is wearing the shirt and having the camera flyer backfly under and shoot photos that way. It's a lot less to deal with and it can be done super easily.

I saw a video of someone jumping with an inflatable. While I'm really not interested in doing this, it seemed dangerous. In the video the inflatable animal was in the harness and it seemed that the jumper had a hard time staying on top of it. Anything to note about jumping with that kinda thing?

Well, for the kinda same reasons, I have asked if I can bring a baloon, 3' long 2" wide. They gave me a go.

Stupid thing, I had to reinflate it going up, every once in a while. It was kinda cool at the time, left hand, right hand, both hands. I was extra cautious at deploying... worked well, except I've dropped it before final approach (just in case).

Summary, it did build some confidence for carrying stuff in free fall, once I've even made a cell phone call

In a nutshell, I had a death in the family recently and a commemorative t-shirt was made with a sweet logo on the back. I wanted to jump with it in hand, belly fly, and have a shot taken of me in freefall with the shirt. (e.g. like this http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pg_TpKrqEkM/0.jpg)

Do you just let it go? Is separation for opening an issue? Let go 1000 ft before opening? Any hope of retrieval?

Well, you can set it up like the referenced photo, with some kind of handle on each bottom corner to hold onto. Do NOT make it a loop that could wrap around your hand rendering it useless for deployment. It might need reinforcing with webbing to keep the shirt from ripping to shreds in freefall. You'll have to hold it taut across the bottom edge to keep the logo legible.

Another technique is to take something like a piece of broom handle and roll that up across the bottom of the shirt, and sew it in place. Leave enough hanging out on both sides to grip onto.

You can hang onto these things duringing deployment, and there is little chance of entanglement with your chute. Just hold it way out in front of you with your left hand, while deploying with your right. Pull higher than usual to allow for extra time to do this.

If you're not comfortable holding it, make sure you are over open terrain before letting go of it. Note that it will then be up above you somewhere while you deploy, and may come back down and hit your open canopy. So you might want to track out from under it for a second or two before deploying.

Jumping with any foreign object in the air is dangerous. Some countries it is illegal to jump with foreign objects, or you need written permission to do so, and then only on occation.

As for the inflatable (animal or whatever), half inflate only on the ground, make sure you have people to stabilise, since it is VERY difficult to keep stable with that. NEVER put it inside you harness, or tie it to yourself, that is just begging for a mal or even a double mal. Now, back to the half inflate, as you do your climb, you will find it inflating itself, make sure you keep the pressure by deflating. This has got a downside to it, that while you are in freefall, this hard inflatable is going to decrease in pressure, and wil be bending and flapping in all directions. Good idea to have a very high seperation from the inflatable, in the case of a snag. Also, plan you spot in such a way that you will be able to retreive it. Also, don't drop it over a town, imagine this thing dropping onto a car windscreen, and causing an accident. Law suit.